Last year was my busiest year ever! In fact, my airline club told me that, not counting December, my omelet pan and I traveled over 110,000 miles and I’m glad to say we’re going to add a lot more miles this year!! Here’s a snapshot of what’s to come…get excited!

The Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg is for farmers and consumers and always kicks-off my yearly activities. I demonstrate my prowess from the “Culinary Connection” stage where chefs from all over central PA demonstrate dishes on their menus using Pennsylvania grown and manufactured foods. Last year, I was also a judge of the Pennsylvania Angel Food Cake contest where the winning cakes from all 116 counties were entered. I had a sugar rush that kept me buzzing for two days afterward, so this year I politely declined. I will, however, be giving two demonstrations to audiences and local media covering the event. Last year I cooked with the Secretary of Agriculture, so we’ll just have to wait and see who this year brings!

Did you know that Bed and Breakfast operators are among the best egg customers we have? Of course, it makes sense since they are always looking for new breakfast ideas and egg cooking techniques. My first Bed & Breakfast Convention this year is in Louisville where the Tri-State B&B owners (Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana) are meeting. So far 125 of them are expected at the event. I’ll also be giving a program for the Texas Bed and Breakfast Association in Houston, the International Association of Innkeepers in Austin and a demonstration at the Delaware State Fair. Prior to that gig, I’ll be making breakfast on one of the biggest morning shows in Delaware with people strolling by on the boardwalk during airtime!

As you know, I also go to a lot of State Fairs during the summer months to give demonstrations for audiences that usually number a hundred or so, but more importantly, these events usually garner great local media largely because of my title as Guinness Book of World Records’ Fastest Omelet Maker! I’m already booked for the Iowa State Fair, Indiana State Fair, the Wisconsin Family and Consumer Sciences Conference and the Delaware Fair – and it’s only January!

Finally, my year includes activities that I’ve been asked to perform for various state egg promotion organizations, and believe it or not, I usually have something to say or to show that will be new to them. Most importantly, I love getting together with my egg promotion colleagues to learn what they’ve been up to.

I welcome 2010 and look forward to letting you know what develops wherever I travel to!

It was a whirlwind trip to Phoenix for the Hickman Ranch’s Third Annual Omelet Dinner. The event was held in the St. Vincent’s Dining Hall for people who work but can’t earn quite enough to keep their families well fed. Each year, employees from Hickman’s Egg Ranch – Arizona’s largest egg provider –team up with volunteers to make omelets, bacon, sausage and potatoes, and serve more than 500 people breakfast! This year was the largest yet! Since the meal is served around Christmas time the Dining Hall is decked with boughs of holly plus lots of other decorations. There are even prizes and gifts for all the children who show up. Even the Hickman giant chicken mascot was there! It was just wonderful!

The Hickman family rounded-up more than 30 volunteers. My job at the event was to orchestrate the preparation of hundreds of cheese omelets. The omelets were made by 16 farm workers, truck drivers and egg packers – almost none of whom had made an omelet before. I started with a quick omelet-making demonstration and then turned them loose with their frying pans.  I’ll admit the first omelets were a little shaky, but by the time they were on their fiftieth omelet, they were flipping them in the air and catching them in the pan behind their back! What a sight!

The “eating good” part of my Phoenix trip was thanks to my host, Sharman Hickman Silva. She took me to a place called Scrambles that only serves breakfast, all day long. What a creative bunch of breakfast makers they are!  I had a Brizza (a breakfast pizza) where the dough is made fresh, baked with a layer of egg on top and with the toppings of your choice! I topped my Brizza with chorizo sausage, peppers, onions and finished with a swirl of jalapeno cream cheese. The heat from all the peppers was searing, which is a good thing to me! The Brizza is Scramble’s signature dish with all kinds of toppings like Gouda cheese, bacon, country ham, garlic spinach with thyme and, of course, mushrooms. Mmmm. Sharman ordered Santa Fe Eggs Benedict, poached eggs on jalapeno corn bread with blackened ham and chipotle hollandaise sauce. Talk about searing heat! All of it was so delicious.

Check out the pictures of me “doing good and eating good” in Phoenix. Enjoy!

A few weeks ago, I spent five days in Denver flipping omelets with the Colorado Egg Producers and discussing the Good Egg Project, an initiative from America’s Egg Farmers. Between media appearances and cooking omelets for those in need, I was a very busy eggman!

On Saturday, November 21, I flipped omelets at the Food Bank of the Rockies where America’s egg farmers, along with Colorado’s Egg Producers, donated 100,000 eggs. It was the first of many egg donations nationwide as a result of people everywhere pledging to “Eat good. Do good every day.” In case you haven’t heard, America’s egg farmers have pledged to donate an egg every time a person takes the pledge – up to one million eggs – either online or wherever a Good Egg Project event occurs. Now, that’s incredible!

In addition to the donation, America’s Egg Farmers and Colorado’s Egg Producers  served a hot breakfast of scrambled eggs and cheese, bacon, sausage and breakfast potatoes to 625 adults and kids who were scheduled to pick up their food boxes for the Thanksgiving holiday. As families ate their breakfast, I demonstrated my omelet-making skills and taught anyone who wanted to learn. My students were mostly kids who lined up to try their hand at omelet making. Below is a picture of one of my “pupils” who gave my leg a big hug for spending time with her. When things got quiet I went to groups of people at tables and entertained them with my omelet flipping prowess. That’s always a crowd pleaser! You can see the excitement in their faces in the photo below – pretty funny, right?

The Colorado Egg Producers also arranged an event at the Weld Food Bank in Greeley, just outside of Denver. I worked with the producers to fix omelets for the good eggs who volunteer their time and efforts to that food bank. And, while we were at it, we fixed plenty of omelets for the families who came to eat at the food bank too!

While I was in Denver, I also hit the airwaves with the local FOX and CBS morning shows to teach them how to cook my famous 40-second omelets. During one of the shows, I was blindfolded for one of my omelets, which worked out fine until I turned the omelet out of the pan. I totally missed the plate with it. What a laugh that got!

Happily, I did have an afternoon off. I was able to drive into the Rockies and enjoy the beautiful mountain vistas and wonderful weather. The vastness of the mountains and the huge blue sky were a real treat since I can’t even see around the buildings surrounding my New York City apartment to simply enjoy a glimpse of any of the sky above us all. What a trip!

Did you know the Japanese consume more eggs per capita than any other nation, but, most families don’t even fix omelets at home? I learned on my trip to Japan that omelet making seems to be limited to professional chefs who were taught in the classical French manner, while Japanese families are generally content eating scrambled eggs at home.

Not any more! After several Japanese egg farmers caught my act in Atlanta last year, they invited me to Japan to conduct my omelet workshops for the press and large groups of consumers. My omelet workshops are events where, after I give a how-to demonstration, guests are invited to get their hands dirty and create their own omelets. In Japan, I conducted omelet workshops in six cities for children in elementary schools, Home Economics classes in high schools and large supermarkets that regularly schedule events like these for their customers.

Did I mention that the Japanese are enthralled by everything Guinness Book? To them, it’s the ultimate in “quirky” and they love “quirky!” So, it’s no surprise that, partly due to my Guinness record, my visits generated a lot of media attention! At each event, I talked about the incredible egg and its great nutritional value. The cameras especially loved the children who were making omelets! I also came prepared and brought a whole suitcase full of “I (heart) NY” t-shirts that I gave to all of the excited kids who snatched them up faster than I can make omelets!

Unlike Omelet Workshops in the U.S. and elsewhere, the Japanese don’t use liquid pasteurized whole eggs so each guest had to crack open two eggs, add their two tablespoons of water and whisk the eggs together for each omelet. That got a little messy! Since the Japanese are not used to filling their omelets, we decided to introduce them to the basics of omelet filling: chopped ham, shredded cheese, and thawed-out frozen mixed vegetables. The vegetables were added because they look pretty and because the Japanese are so conscious of healthy eating.

Most of my workshops were held in schools and supermarkets, but I did have the chance to visit one of Japan’s largest egg farmers’ farm/restaurant/food shop in Fijiya to give a workshop to his employees, the townspeople and their families. What an experience! I taught omelet making on a clearing at the top of a hill overlooking more hills and mountains under an azure blue sky. Awesome!

I returned to the U.S. with literally hundreds of photos. I’ve chosen photos from the Kokekokko Farm event because I think they captured the spirit of this American giving egg cooking lessons to whoever wanted to learn, regardless of their age.

Luckily for me, I’m often invited to demonstrate my omelet technique in other countries as part of my gig with the American Egg Board. Recently, I was asked by the United States Poultry and Egg Export Council (USAPEEC) to go to Mexico and talk to chefs in the foodservice industry about food safety.

I visited three cities while in Mexico: Mexico City, Veracruz and Cancun. At each of these cities I showed chefs, restaurateurs, commercial kitchen operators and culinary students how well-pasteurized whole egg products perform. Liquid pasteurized whole eggs best meet food safety guidelines because they’re pasteurized. They’re also SO convenient to use because there are no shells to crack open and thus easier to handle. Of course, there’s probably no better way to show how easy they are to cook with than to demonstrate my 40-second omelet!

For each demonstration, I whipped up my 40-second omelet, which was fairly intimidating since so many of my “students” were seasoned, formally trained full-blown chefs who were likely taught omelet making on the first day of their culinary training. That’s where my Guinness Book high-speed omelet making record credential comes in handy!

After these demonstrations participants were invited to come up to tables filled with burners, pans, an array of different omelet filling choices and – of course – liquid pasteurized whole eggs to cook with.

In Mexico City and Cancun, where we had events for the professionals, everybody fixed their own omelets for lunch.  In Veracruz, the Governor, Fidel Herrera, showed up and made an omelet for the media that covers all of his activities, so it was aired on television and was in the newspapers throughout the area.

It was definitely a good time had by all! Hopefully, they learned how easy it is to use liquid pasteurized whole eggs! Hasta Luego!

It was the biggest block party I ever attended. It may even have been the biggest block party ever! With Rachael Ray, live and in-person, stirring up excitement, the energy level at The Good Egg Project launch was absolutely palpable. The event was held around Wrigley Field in Chicago and was attended by over a thousand Chicagoans. The event was filmed as the first episode of the “Rachael Ray Show” this season. As part of the show, Rachael announced The Good Egg Project launch in an interview with Jacques Klempf, the Chairman of the American Egg Board and Cookie Monster!

What’s The Good Egg Project? It’s an effort by America’s egg farmers to get people to pledge to “EAT GOOD AND DO GOOD EVERYDAY,” a philosophy always promoted by Rachael and now publicly embraced by all of America’s egg farmers. At the same time, the Good Egg Project will educate people about where their eggs come from. Read on to learn how you can be involved.

Many activities kept the party-goers busy. There were games, amusement park rides, clowns, jugglers, mimes and all sorts of attractions and giveaways to keep the festivities going. Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster was there with us (America’s Egg Farmers are sponsors of Sesame Street’s 40th season). There were cooking demonstrations by celebrity chefs Rick Bayless and Art Smith whom I had just worked with at the White House Easter Egg event. And then there was my Kids Only cooking demonstration.

I was situated behind a fry pan surrounded by eggs, cheese, peppers and bacon, encouraging all of the many youngsters who passed by to help me make cheesy eggs and eggs-in-the-hole. And they did! The kids put butter in my pan, then a ladleful of beaten eggs. While I stirred the eggs they added whatever they wanted…always lots of cheese, and plenty of bacon, too. All the while I encouraged the kids to be sure to eat eggs for the energy their minds and bodies needed.

And then, ta-da! I flipped their creations into the air as high as I could make them go. They did an airborne turn and landed – plop – upside down back in the pan to the sheer delight of the kids, and adults, too. I am, after all, the “Guinness Book World’s Fastest Omelet Flipper.” Really! Although I didn’t keep track of the number of kids involved, there were plenty enough to totally wear me out when the festivities ended. I loved it! The kids loved it and their parents loved it too!

While I was busy with the kids, crowds lined up behind me to sign The Good Egg Project Pledge. Literally! More than 760 of them added their signatures to a huge egg illustration that committed them to “Eating Good and Doing Good Everyday.”

PLEEZE get involved in The Good Egg Pledge, too. For each pledge made on WWW.GOODEGGPROJECT.ORG, America’s egg farmers will donate one egg to Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger relief charity, up to one million eggs!
On the site, you can also learn more about modern egg farming and how to give back to the community and live more healthfully. You’ll feel good about it. I promise!

I love the Delaware State Fair mainly because I love the folks I work with there. My local “partners” are Anne Fitzgerald, the Chief of Community Relations for the Delaware Department of Agriculture and her colleague, Judith Leith. Together – like a well-oiled machine – we have a terrific time shopping, prepping and presenting at the fair, always using fresh Delaware products for the omelets that I demonstrate.

Anne recently informed me Delaware was once the largest producer of peaches in the U.S.  So much so, that the peach blossom is the state flower! Though peach production has diminished over the years, Delaware’s love for peaches has not. So, on July 30, at the state fairgrounds, peach pie was declared Delaware’s official state dessert. No kidding.

To celebrate Delaware’s love for peaches, we set out to create a peach omelet dessert of our own. We filled a 3-egg omelet with two fresh peaches that we sliced and sautéed in butter with sugar, sour cream and pecans. We folded the omelet then dusted it with confectioner’s sugar and flamed it with peach flavored brandy. When the fire finally burned itself out, there was a thick, syrupy peach brandy-flavored puddle in the pan that I spooned over the omelet before topping it with sour cream. The result was one of the most fabulous tasting omelets I’ve ever made. We passed out samples to the audience and they swooned – it was that delicious.  The recipe is below….enjoy!

DELAWARE PEACHES N’ CREAM OMELET FLAMBE

For the omelet
•    3 eggs
•    3 tablespoons water
•    1 tablespoon butter

For the filling and topping  -  have these ingredients at the serving table
•    2 fresh peaches, sliced and sautéed in 1 tablespoon of butter and two tablespoons of    sugar ½  cup plus ¼ cup of sour cream
•    ½ cup chopped pecans
•    2 tablespoons confectioners sugar
•    1/3 cup peach (or apricot) flavored brandy (must be 70-proof to flame)

Make the omelet in the kitchen – Beat together eggs and water. In a pre-heated 10-inch omelet pan, heat butter until it sizzles. Pour in egg mixture. With an inverted spatula, pull cooked portions of egg from the perimeter of the pan towards the center so the uncooked egg can reach the hot pan surface, tilting the pan and moving it as necessary. Always keep the bottom of the pan covered with egg so you end up with an egg “pancake”. Continue until the egg is set and will not flow.

Filling and flaming the omelet at the serving table – Move fast so that the pan retains enough heat to warm the brandy when you pour it in. Take the hot pan with the omelet to the table and place it on a trivet. Moving quickly, spoon the peaches, ½ cup of the sour cream and ½ cup of the pecans onto the left side of the omelet (left-handed people fill the right side). Fold the unfilled side of the omelet over the filling. Dust the omelet with the confectioners sugar, pour the brandy into the pan and let it sizzle a bit, then set it ablaze with a match. Baste the omelet with the burning brandy using a long-handled spoon until the fire goes out. Spoon the thickened brandy from the pan all over the omelet, then top it with the remaining sour cream and pecans. Makes 4 generous servings.

Earlier this month, my American Egg Board colleague, Alice Heinze, invited me to demonstrate my omelet-making skills at the School Nutrition Association Annual National Conference in Las Vegas. In addition to Directors and Managers of School Foodservice programs from around the country, the audience included the kitchen staff personnel. In my opinion, these kitchen workers are the unsung heroes of the culinary world!

Unlike Emeril, Bobby or Martha, these chefs don’t start the day at the market selecting the fresh primo ingredients for their menus or consult with their sous-chefs before preparing a meal. In fact, most of the time they aren’t even certain of what the day’s menu holds in store until they arrive each morning and are expected to cook up meals that are tasty and nutritious!

With so much research pointing to better performance by kids with a breakfast under their belts, school foodservice participants understand the value of eggs more than ever. With this in mind, Alice and I focused on providing a variety of egg breakfast recipes that both the cooks who prepare them and the kids who eat them will enjoy. I demonstrated a total of three recipes.

First, I whipped up an egg and pancake sandwich. It consisted of eggs and low-fat sausage baked together in a large pan, then cut into squares and sandwiched. The eggs and sausage were accompanied by a couple cheese slices and placed in between two pancakes! Next, I made one of my classic omelets. And, finally, I demonstrated a delicious bacon and egg salad breakfast wrap. Our hotel kitchen prepared the wrap and distributed samples to our audience of about 75 enthusiastic school foodservice workers. The wrap was quite the hit!

Overall, the weekend was quite a success and I was proud to be amongst some of the many heroes of the culinary world!

I recently had an amazing 3-day breakfast extravaganza with Kristin Livermore, a colleague, and lots of magazine food editor friends! The purpose of the breakfasts was to talk about recent research that shows eating eggs for breakfast helps individuals feel fuller longer and stay energized. Eggs…The high-quality protein in eggs provides energy for the mind and body throughout the day…What a terrific message!

We held the breakfasts at Landmarc, a restaurant in the Time-Warner building in Columbus Circle, where they get very creative with their egg dishes! Most people ordered my favorite dish of all, oeufes en meurette – eggs poached in red wine - because it’s truly exotic. As far as I know, Landmarc is the only restaurant in New York that even serves it. The poached eggs, which are purple in color after their wine poaching, are served on a bed of brown colored mushroom ragout so the total look of the dish is – well, not the greatest.  BUT – it doesn’t matter. Our editor guests all agreed that – despite the look - the dish tasted absolutely fabulous! It was such an interesting dish I decided to take pictures of it in its three stages:

1. Delivered to the table 

2. The yolk broken open

3. The end result!

Another egg dish we all LOVED was the croque madame, a ham and gruyere cheese sandwich made from totally egg-rich brioche bread that’s dipped into egg batter, then fried in butter, then topped with a perfectly fried egg. Mmmmmm! We also shared the restaurant’s version of pain purdu, essentially French toast but done so deliciously differently at Landmarc! It’s a whole half loaf of brioche bread that’s soaked in egg and then fried.   The dish is fused with vanilla flavored sugar after it comes out of the deep fryer creating a crunchy sugary crust! Don’t worry – powdered sugar and syrup is placed atop the dish too! What a unanimous winner that was.

As you might expect, Kristin and I skipped lunch everyday. For dinner we went to two restaurants where eggs shined once more. Balthazar restaurant served a hamburger ala chervil (with an egg on top) and The Modern, one of restaurateur Danny Meyer’s establishments, served a totally original egg dish with a portion of the cost going directly to City Harvest charity.

I bet you think I’d be egg’d out after all that amazing food, right? Wrong! After my three days with Kristin and the food editors, I love eggs more than ever!

That’s me holding a Martha-esque fancy-schmancy asparagus and lump crabmeat quiche! When sliced, each piece features an asparagus spear running down the center. Nice. I prepared it for a video I shot in Maryland two weeks ago. The Maryland Egg Council is participating in a “What’s For Dinner” advertising campaign with four local CBS Radio affiliates, and the quiche was one of nine recipes I prepared for the campaign. Radio listeners are encouraged to visit the station’s website to view my recipe demonstration video!

In addition to the Maryland Egg Council, the advertising campaign includes the Department of Agriculture’s “Maryland’s Best” (a program promoting local fresh fruits and vegetables), Whole Foods and Liberatore’s, a local restaurant chain. As you can imagine, all of the recipes I made focused on fresh produce, eggs of course, and local ingredients. The taping was done in the Culinary Center of a brand new Whole Foods supermarket in Annapolis Town Center.

Working with fresh lump crabmeat was a treat since I’m always so aware of the cost of ingredients in my dishes. It was very luxurious! In addition to the crab and asparagus quiche, I used crabmeat in a frittata recipe in which the base was eggs (of course) and also ramen noodles. Kinda’ contradictory – less than 50-cents worth of eggs, less than 25-cents worth of ramen noodles, and about 5-dollars worth of lump crabmeat! I added some diced red and green bell peppers for color and ended up with the most delicious frittata I have ever made!

I also demonstrated a garden egg burrito using all manner of diced fresh vegetables, a garden  “confetti” omelet (where the vegetables were embedded in the egg so their colors showed through) and a French filled omelet with more Maryland fresh vegetables. Since Maryland produces terrific fresh sweet corn, I also made New England Johnny Cakes (egg rich cornmeal pancakes) from kernels I stripped from leftover ears of cooked corn. Using fresh Maryland spinach, I whipped up some spinach soup with a poached egg floating on top. And Maryland’s abundant apple crop inspired an omelet with fresh apples that I peeled, sliced and sauteed in butter and brown sugar, plus sharp cheddar cheese, bacon, pecans and a drizzle of maple syrup on top. Finally, I made everyone’s favorite, deviled eggs!

All in all, it took only 3 hours to prepare the nine dishes that I made on camera! What a perfect example of the ease and speed of cooking with eggs. The fact that all of the dishes were filmed without having to go back and fix anything further attests to eggs’ user-friendliness. I LOVE EGGS! Period. As if you didn’t know.

The video demos will be featured on the CBS radio “What’s For Dinner” website from now through September: Be sure to check ‘em out at: http://whatsfordinner.vertasource.com!